Teatime!
by Urchin of the Riding Stars
Summary: Tribute/Sequel to Shizuka's Coffee Shop Blues. As Vlad and Danny continue their peculiar relationship, our favorite fruit loop decides to enjoy one of life's greater luxuries: high tea. But Danny's never really been one for tea….and wants another treat...
1. Chapter 1

Teatime!

~*~

* * *

  
Tribute/Sequel to Shizuka-onnichan's Coffee Shop Blues. As Vlad and Danny continue their peculiar relationship, our favorite fruit loop decides to enjoy one of life's greater luxuries: high tea. But Danny's never really been one for tea….and thinks he'd make a few choice tastes known…..

* * *

*Blushes.* Um…Shizuka-senpai? ^-^ I know I'm acting like a spazzy cheerleader or something along that rubbish, but I wanted to create a small tribute to Coffee Shop Blues for fun. Obviously, I can't publish it….and I know it's certainly not as good as one of your fictions (I'm new to the whole "writing yaoi" thing, but I'll give it a shot.)

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. If I did, well….I would have tried to keep the show running on for longer than three seasons. *Sighs sadly.* But it was a good run, and I enjoyed it. 

Quote:

"Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea." ~Henry Fielding

~*~*~

* * *

Taking a casual bite from a small, macadamia nut cookie and chewing thoughtfully at the slight, pleasant sweetness as he did so, the man lowered the small, porcelain teacup delicately and daintily resting on his opposite fingertips-as if it were not priceless bone china-quietly to the nearby saucer waiting obediently on the nearby coffee table a few feet away from the majestic armchair perched in front of the roaring flames in the nearby fireplace.

As Vlad swallowed the last remnants of his Darjeeling tea and macadamia pastry, his head automatically-if not expectantly-shifted to the nearby clock perched on the fireplace.

Blue eyes flickered. He sighed.

Normally, this hour was a favored-if not the MOST favored-time of week. While Vladimir was intense in the long retinue of business that had, for quite some time-established his existence as nothing short of a living hell-he was insistent on his taking weekends off-and Friday evenings merely established that selfsame satisfaction the billionaire would receive from a complex and intricate series of dealings that had only bolstered the man's already immense sea of resources and wealth.  
And then, he'd simply sit in front of the fire (or in front of one of five pools his home possessed, were it of a warmer season then it was currently in the February chill), and, after enjoying a delicious bout of foreign teas he'd been interested to try, would simply do nothing for awhile as he sat quietly alone in good comfort with perhaps a pastry or two, were he in the mood to splurge a little.  
His blue eyes flickered, and the man's jaw set in the newfound silence, broken only by the cheerful snaps and pops reverberating from the chorusing flames devouring a readily darkening pile of logs Vlad had asked the maid to lay out some time ago.  
As he took another sip of the dark, still hot liquid, and quietly contemplated the sharp, but nonetheless clean aroma of the tea leaves-and the unusual, bittersweet confection that varied as you sipped; in the beginning, almost painfully saccharine-but, as you swallowed….  
He cringed slightly as he did just that, the awful bitterness of the strange, German concoction that he had so recently ordered flooding his throat as the dark green contents of his mouth were swallowed.  
The resulting flare of dull astringent was really overwhelmingly atrocious. Blecch. After awhile, the tea became mundane, monotonous, and dreary. If not overly sweet or sour, it did not maintain a healthy combination of the two into a quiet, reasonable taste that was both warming and refreshing till one was actually finishing the drink itself.  
Huh, as Daniel might say. It was peculiar how something so obstinate as a tea could actually give semblance to his life.  
In the years it had taken to build his multibillion dollar empire, Vlad had really not looked ahead to ponder what he was actually going to do once he GOT there. Along the way, he'd kept his gaze upon his own feet, and had treaded carefully to bring himself to the top. Ultimately-and-obviously-the man had been exceptionally good at what he did-and had landed himself among one of the most wealthy and powerful men to walk across the face of the planet. It had been immensely satisfying-and he'd drank the sweet nectar of success in excessive amounts.  
But, as the years went by-and the fact that something so meaningful and as treasured meant to be shared among a couple had ceased to mean little to absolutely nothing in his now wretched life-when the brief pleasure would only make him feel all the more disillusioned, once it had ended….

There was no one who merely appreciated the fact that Vlad Masters was a human. Merely, he was interesting-for he had wealth. None of his (all very brief) concubines had anything to admire about him but his ocean of currency.

Even that could not be fully appreciated. Without the same…closeness, the same intimacy he could hope to know with someone else-just that sacred somebody, and nobody else-and the fact that his life was little more then a well dug rut with little escape-seeing as how he'd already traveled the continent several times over, bought so many things, DONE so many things….  
Vlad shuddered at the resonating sourness traveling down his throat that was not at all a result from the tea, and hurriedly reached for another small cookie on the nearby tray.

Oh, how sick he had been of it all….till Daniel came into his life but three months ago.  
Vlad had read enough novels to understand that most odd, romantic escapades entered your life when you weren't particularly looking for it…..or even in the oddest of circumstances.  
Feh. Months ago-and in that November afternoon he had been brooding over a small cup of coffee in that pleasant little shop he was prone to visiting, he would have vehemently discussed the idea as a mere, sentimental, tabloid fantasy.

But after that small bell had resonated with a gentle ding! over the door, and the dark inrush of a thin, reasonably well built, petite figure in black had so casually made his way to the nearby counter to make his order….  
His face was pale-as was the rest of his cream disposition, complete with an effulgent glow that well complimented his features-as well as a casual flush that implemented from the outside gusts in the rapidly deteriorating temperature.  
His hair was shaggy around his face-and stopped around his chin. His eyes had been a overwhelming sea of sappharine, and, the black leather he'd worn that emphasized his thin figure….and backside….  
Vlad had indeed, wanted to drool. The man would have watched Daniel like a stalker for any of the remaining precious time he would've had to observe the little, prince like figure before the small phantasm hurried on his way again….  
The abrupt stirring in his chest cavity as he watched the boy-his boy-was overwhelmingly odd…as well as mortifying. The boy-for he still looked very much like a boy-could still be in high school, for all Vladimir knew! Obliterating gorgeous he was-how could a teenager invoke such a stirring in the man's groin-or a burning desire to hold and dominate that selfsame body then and there…..?  
But, as the man took in the boy's fair visage-and overwhelmingly stunning….everything, it had been well enough to forget that as he continued to stare at young man absentmindedly filling his Styrofoam cup with sweeteners from a packet.  
At this point, the billionaire's trembling, alabaster fingertips were longing to leaf through with firstly gentle caressing through the soft, inky black spikes that so softly cradled his features…then, tear through them with reckless abandonment as the billionaire dominated the boy's mouth senselessly, feeling what he imagined to be bare silk and satiny flesh wavering under the man's restlessly and desperately caressing hands, going lower, and lower, and-!

Daniel had noticed him staring-and, when the man had looked down to silently control the overwhelming desire beginning to burn in his veins-fire in his bloodstream as there hadn't been for years…….  
…the boy had come over to the table with a slight, incredulous smirk to inquire what exactly the man had been doing.


	2. Chapter 2

Teatime

~*~*~

Daniel really was a perceptive little thing. He had come over to the billionaire's table, smirking as he did so.....

Just thinking about that look of his had made Vladimir want to drool.

~*~*~*~

"It would seem so. I must confess, Daniel, that I have never desired someone as much as I do you."

To be quite honest, he, Vlad, had never spoken a truer statement. While his boy could put up a good smirk and an incredulous snicker, the boy didn't really seem to think much of himself. Considering he was nothing short of the Apple painted of Eden, it was absolutely appalling, as well as his absurd insistence to be labeled something so immature and juvenile as "Danny."

But there were many factors of Danny he could not quite comprehend. After the two had fallen asleep on Vlad's four-poster, and the older man had stirred himself awake in the aftermath (Judging, by the nearby clock, a period of two and a half hours) he had simply lay there, under the ornate satin covers, Daniel still cradled to him, the boy's cream chin resting on his bare shoulder, midnight spikes tilted ever so slightly to the side as he softly breathed in and out, the slightest smile on his visage.

Vlad had to resist the urge to run for a camera, or to take him right then and there. Luckily,(For Daniel, that was) Vlad was simply too at peace with the little, warm body tangled in his arms, and with the world.

He had stared up at the ceiling for awhile, but soon found his gaze traveling back to the young boy still quietly sleeping beside him, heart beating a calm and sure beat underneath Vlad's wandering fingertips, which were slowly skimming up the silksilksilk flesh of his chest, ghosting over his nipples before returning his touch to Daniel's chest cavity...

He had groaned, slightly, as Danny fidgeted ever so slightly in his slumber and mewed. Shaking off his prickling temptation, the man had sighed lightly, and skimmed bony fingers down the boy's back, wearing a slight, amused smirk as the boy unconciously shuddered in response.

Again, his fingers found the Japanese kanji marked upon the boy's back, the man frowning slightly as he had done.

'Am I a Broken Messiah.....'

Sounded like a death note....

The rest had been history.

* * *

Daniel may of had the first kiss, but Vlad had been...."topping"....as the teen had put it. Heh.

Vlad managed a self satisfied smirk.

He had been satisfied-so fully and completed SATISFIED-for the first time with a.....concubine. Though, Daniel was far from anything of the sort, so perhaps that only managed to add to the high.....

~*~

_So good....._

_In between every, open mouthed kiss...._

_I want more....._

_He had ultimately craved more-excessive amounts of more-and had pertained an odd, animalistic, savage pleasure-so wild and unprovoked, he, Vlad, had no idea he possessed within him...._

~*~*~

'Am I a Broken Messiah....?'

Such a very unusual sentiment by itself-let alone for a teenage boy.

Vlad frowned slightly as he remembered the slight bump in Danny's flawless skin, marked by the small, slight, and dark characters that had found their way into his flesh.

Daniel had not wished to speak about it-and Vlad had not pressed, though he had craved to learn more in advance about the child he had took, then and there in his billionaire dollar home, in his bed, in his arms...!

Vlad managed a slight, self satisfied smirk.

Daniel was no end of fascination for the billionaire, and, while he had yearned to know more after the heat of passion had died down...somewhat....in the gentle glow that had come from the peaceful aftermath of release.

Well-he had been....upon awakening to find that his passion induced fantasies-ones he had been quite unaware he was aware of, or capable of setting into reality-had NOT been the wistful dreams the man was so often able to conjure in the emptiness he had known in the withdrawal of sheer boredom....and the fed-up qualities he had possessed of life.....

Daniel was new. Daniel was an enigma. The child was INTERESTING, to say the fraction of the truth.

He did not want to lose the boy upon asking his driver to chauffeur the child home-the selfsame home he did not seem fond of returning to all too early.....

~*~*~

It wasn't enough, that sex. Though it had given him relief-relief he had never known for himself, and a new prospective upon the world itself...

He wanted to know the child, daunting a task though it was. Daniel seemed more interested in hearing Vlad talk about himself then he was ever willing to talk about himself-excluding when it came to his friends.

The girl he so often spoke of-Sam, most likely short for Samantha....was brought up fairly often in conversation, following shortly after when Daniel's eyes had at last opened, feeling the billionaire's fingertips massaging the back of his neck.

He had managed a slight smile, closing his eyes over lapis lazuli as he had done so.....

"Hey," he had teasingly commented, leaning up to capture the older man's lips in a light kiss, his fingers slowly finding the tousled mane of silver that was the man's hair.

Vlad's fingers never left the back of Danny's neck, and they had resumed their soothing ministrations as slowly, very slowly, they inched into the boy's raven hair.

"Hello yourself, Daniel," he had murmured seductively, the suggestive smirk making the boy blush all so adorably.

~*~*~*~  
For awhile, the two had laid there, Daniel still within the cradle of his arms...where the child fit remarkably well. A slight smile tugged at the corners of the billionaire's mouth as he remembered....

For the most part, Daniel had been content in the silence as Vlad's hands absentmindedly ghosted over the boy's body, occasionally playing with his hair or feeling the elaborate silk that was his flesh, watching the boy shiver beside him where he was with an odd sense of delight.

The boy had laughed, slightly, incredulously making a comment of some sort. Vlad wasn't really paying attention-too preoccupied was he in merely hearing the barotones of his lovely voice....

"Um....Vlad? Heeeelllooooo? You there, cheesehead?

....cheesehead?"

~*~*~*~

They had talked for a short period of time. Vlad had made some sort of comment, and Daniel had responded to it with a small reference of Sam....the girl he spoke about...rather often, in the short time they knew each other....

As Danny had done so, Vlad had watched him, a thoughtful expression....intermingling with one he did not believe he was able to create, nor replicate.

He had felt....an odd sort of....flare....searing his insides as Daniel spoke about the girl. It was most....disorientating, at best.

He was Vladimir Masters-billionaire typhoon. He had enough power and influence to rival that of a royal power. His resources were vast, and his companies' hold of the global market was astounding.

So why.....this girl he had never even MET.....

Make him feel....

.....jealous? 


	3. Chapter 3

He remembered Daniel's last visit-and how his back had hit the wall with a _thud_, forcing a grunt from him that quickly melted into another long moan as Vlad's ravishing lips and tongue returned. He remembered the gasping moans; how Daniel had tasted, how his fingertips had brushed against the tantalizingly silky cream flesh...

How much Daniel had writhed when he had felt Vlad's passion in his body, the way he had pleaded out to-

Vlad started, blinked, and shook his head slightly. He ravished the boy enough-and thoroughly enjoyed it, too...but that was far from the ONLY thing he liked about the boy. Far from it.

He LIKED the teenager. Enjoyed his unusual company very much. Wanted to tear out the throat of anyone foolish enough to express interest in the teen and smash it into the ground...though he supposed he might have to control that particular..."affectionate gesture..."

He cared for him. Too much so, he supposed. But at least in the law's eye, he was no pedophile.

But even if he were, Vlad seriously had to wonder on whether or not he would truly care, at this point. After all, while it would only take an angry mother and a court hearing to prevent him from ever seeing Daniel again-legally, at the very least-he was far too used to, as he had once put it to Daniel, 'using a vast sea of resources and connections to assuage certain multitudes that he could easily warp an already contorted and imperfect political introspection built upon the laws of faint-hearted men to make a few gains that would otherwise be impossible to obtain or to be gained approval by the republic.'

Daniel had stared at him with a raised eyebrow for a moment, and then, had dryly replied, "So...basically you're saying, 'Screw the rules, I have money?'

~*~

A smirk crossed the man's features as he absentmindedly checked his watch again.

Hrrrmmm. Daniel had never been this late before. When the teenager said he would come, he did-and that was that. Perhaps it was because of the fact that his uncertain and spontaneous visits could only be made by absolute reassurance. The billionaire could not garner too much by Daniel's home life, but it was a particularly touchy subject with the teen-and Vlad had simply gotten used to his shying away from most questions pertaining to his family.

With a sigh, Vlad at last stood, stretching lightly. Daniel would be in trouble when he arrived at the manor gates-if Vlad wasn't already dragging him across the threshold to his bed chamber by that point.

Perhaps he ought to try calling, just one more time. Daniel could pick on and tease the billionaire as much as he could like-he would pay for it soon enough-but Vlad was now becoming a little concerned. Pausing lightly, he at last reached for the cell phone he had in his pocket, and impatiently flicked the ridiculously elaborate machine open. Pressing 2 rather hard to open speed dial, Vlad held the small device to his ear, and frowned as the device continued to ring.

Didn't teenagers rarely turn their cell phones off-if ever? Why wouldn't the boy answer?

A spark of apprehension prickled at the man's neck, and his brow creased as the phone continued to ring, until-

At last! Silence for a moment, then, Vlad heard a light, pained gasp.

"Hey...this...thing...still works...?"

Unconsciously, Vlad exhaled silently at the beautiful sound of the boy's voice, but relief was short-lived when Danny gasped again.

"Geez...I guess though the 9 button is smashed...it can still..."

He trailed off. Vlad's eyes widened in confusion. Was the boy teasing him? It certainly didn't sound like it.

And...if Vlad wasn't mistaken...something was omitting a high-shriek wailing behind the teenager in the distance...

"Daniel? Daniel, what are you..."

Silence for a moment.

"Vlad, is that you?"

At this point, Vlad had to resist the urge to roll his eyes.

"No. Of course not-don't be absurd." He exhaled, and drew a hand through silver strands before a small smile twitched at the corners of his mouth.

"What's taking you so long? Do you want me to come and get you?" His voice had lowered itself from its usual baritone to a husky purr. To his pleasure, he thought he could almost see Danny's reaction on the other end-which included the child's going beet red before swallowing, a small, quirk of a smile that Vlad loved so much beginning to spread on the sauntering expression NO teenager should be allowed to ha-

A sigh. Danny cleared his throat to speak, but it was obvious it was not without labor. The smile began to fade from Vlad's face.

"Daniel?"

At last, Danny spoke once again.

"Heh. S-Stalker fruit...fruitcake. Best type there is," he joked lightheartedly, and then, a soft cry. "Agggh..."

Vlad had been pacing prior to this point, but he stopped almost immediately as a voice drifted from nearby...

"Take it easy, son. We're going to drag you out now, but we're going to need you to drop the phone, okay? It'll be better if your hands are free."

The billionaire froze, now beginning to feel quite worried as Danny lowered the phone with nothing but a brief, 'Hang on,' and a murmur of assent to someone before tugging the phone back to his ear.

"This thing's wrecked...anyways...Vlad, I'm really sorry, but I seriously doubt that I'm going to be able to make it today."

Vlad had already taken a few steps towards the door, alabaster hands tightly wound around his device.

"Daniel? Daniel, why, what's...?"

He wasn't too good at this. Feeling sheepish, Vlad tried again.

"What's wrong? Are you al..."

A cry of pain. The phone line began to flicker. More voices began to rise about him.

"Be careful, now! You could crush the boy's legs if you don't tug soon!"

"I got him, I got him...son, son, listen. You're going to be just fine, you hear me?"

Vlad's cerulean eyes had widened, and his hand had frozen on the doorknob.

"Daniel? Daniel! Blast it, boy-what in the world is-?"

A sigh. Vlad could hear someone whistle.

"YIKES. That ain't too pretty-c'mon. Get the boy a stretcher, come on-"

The billionaire was now beginning to lose it out of sheer agitation.

"Daniel, answer-"

But a cool and crisp female voice answered him.

"Hello? Forgive me, but the Fenton boy will have to call you back," she said calmly.

Vlad swallowed, fighting the urge to scream random obscenities to her passive demeanor while he could hear Daniel yelping just a few feet away-!

"W-what is this?" The man spluttered, shakily picking up his porcelain cup of tea. "What are you-just who do you th-"

"Sir, please calm down-we're wheeling Daniel-"

"Danny," a faint voice corrected from somewhere in the distance, over the shrill siren still wailing.

"-Danny, then-to the hospital as we speak. He'd been out walking somewhere-he hasn't said where-and then, well...as he was crossing past an intersection, a driver..."

Vlad's trembling had ceased, and the man had frozen to a petrified stance as the woman droned on.

"...who was on pain killers became confused...and accidentally floored the accelerator instead of the brake. We just removed the boy from the scene of the crash; and we're relocating him to the ER as we speak." 


	4. Chapter 4

A loud, obnoxious, squealing noise had been what had initially captured the poor boy's attention. As he had bustled forwards in the cold, hands jammed in his pockets, breath emanating itself in the form of white puffs in the frigid, afternoon air, the awful noise had begun its screeching siren. Puzzled and annoyed, the teen had thrown his hands, chapped from cold-to his ears. Danny had then turned around with a small frown as he, like many passerby bustling to and fro in the crowd, in an attempt to locate where the serrated sound was coming from.

Danny had only a split second to capture where exactly the source was.

His blue orbs had widened, and people scrambled for cover around him, one or two of them shouting a warning-

Too late.

A loud, foghorn-like HOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKK! Had blasted his eardrums-and the boy had staggered back with a cry of alarm, in a futile attempt to escape as his mind went blank, and he abruptly lost all feeling in his limbs.

The bit of sunlight still stubbornly determined to place a small, illuminated fingertip upon the small town of Amity Park-had glinted off the approaching window of the vehicle.

And then, came the collision.

Not long after, the screaming staring.

~*~*~

He could not remember when and how the car had hit him; all he could recall and know, know above all else, a blinding series of white spots that began to plaster themselves about his vision as he'd flown backwards, eyes enormous and dilated, mouth open in a wordless cry.

The dark, rust covered stains across his vision followed shortly afterwards.

Red had flickered in as the stinging stars of pain had almost immediately began to stab eagerly at his insides, and, in spite of the cold air whipping past his long, raven bangs, he felt something warm, and wet.

Blood?

Danny didn't know, and didn't care. His body hit the arctic-like, rock-solid pavement with a series of nasty crunches, and his form had then been so overcome with sheer agony, that his body went numb with the intensity of it all, for a moment or two.

Too bad that the numbness didn't last any longer-his body arched with the crushing blows it had received; stung with cold fire that left the boy gasping, blind, and trembling in the dark asphalt, surrounded with a rich, ruby red material as he faintly heard a car motor rrrrrrrrrrrrr to a stop somewhere in the distance. He could hear the thud, thud, thudding sounds of people's feet padding across the pavement as they raced to him, could hear beeps of several, miscellaneous cell phones as people hurriedly began to call for an ambulance-

But the boy simply lay there, blinking, almost incomprehensively, in the street. His breath was pained, and labored-and his legs…

He didn't look at them. He didn't have to. The warmth sweeping from the gashes was enough of a confirmation, and the simple act of breathing left him feeling faint. He could not move his head. The pressure about his lungs left him gasping, and the toll of gasping left his forehead beaded with perspiration as the world swum in and out of an absentminded focus…..

And the effort of doing just that made his eyes burn with unshed tears. He closed them. It wasn't as if they were doing him any good, anyways.

The throbbing wiped his mind blissfully blank, every sense forgone to anything but the rhythmic thud of distress.

There were footsteps still pounding on the ground…or was that his own heartbeat? He couldn't quite tell.

Opening his eyes, Danny stared blindly up at the skyline, chest heaving once, then twice. He could hear a shrill wailing in the distance; but disregarded it.

What had happened? He did not know. He could not see, and no one would tell him. There was quite a bit of jabbering going on about him, but the words were meaningless sounds-and completely incomprehensible to him as he lay there.

Darkness swept over the scarlet, like the pie crust covering a filling.

~*~*~

He had been hurrying-that much he knew and remembered. He was going to arrive "fashionably late," at Vlad's for tea, though his….whatever Vlad was to him, other then undeniably, drop dead gorgeous…..knew that he didn't care for tea. It was just enough sitting in Vlad's chair….or, preferably, on Vlad's lap on Vlad's easy chair, as the hour ticked by in the Winter frost.

A light blush began to dust Danny's face, and the boy moaned. One of the paramedics surrounding the boy placed a soothing, gloved hand on his face before turning to talk very seriously to the anxious, uncertain storm of witnesses surrounding the boy's body.

Danny fidgeted, and attempted to speak; which had been a mistake. The world spun sickeningly in front of his eyes, and, his stomach wrenched. Danny threw up from where he lay, the hot sting of acid burning his throat as it passed, forcing the boy back when he was done. Groaning, Danny began to tremble again, goosebumps dotting his pale flesh-the flesh Vlad raved over each and every time he'd made love to the young boy…..

Danny went red again, but not from pain.

After his first….'visit'…with the man, much to his surprise, Danny found himself contacting Vlad quite often. The billionaire was suave, sneering, domineering….but those were traits that were all too…..

His ears were pink, but not from cold.

No one could make him feel as Vlad did in bed. Not that he ever tried, and not that Vlad was ever going to make him feel as though he were welcome to anytime soon…..the guy was kind of possessive. Whenever the two had appeared in public together (Which happened but rarely, pardoning the times the two had paid their favorite coffee shop a nostalgic visit), whenever any girl…or guy, for that matter….happened to look at him for more then two seconds, if Vlad weren't already by the boy's side, he'd be there in a heartbeat, with an expression that hardly befitted someone of such high 'class' as Vladimir Masters, billionaire typhoon.

In spite of himself, Danny almost smiled.

Then again, perhaps the whole, 'I'm going to tear you into microscopic pieces in 1/100th of a second if you don't look away NOW' was a rule Vladdy had never happened to tell him about.

The paramedics were talking to him in urgent, but patient murmurs, but Danny was not quite listening.

Though it was…unnerving, it was also….slightly flattering. Vlad seriously had to give him way too much credit. The way he touched Danny, or held him….nowadays, it was almost as if the man were holding broken glass, or a little angel. Normally, the man leered at Danny during….that…special time…and his fingers twitched a lot, as if he were contemplating tearing the boy apart with his hands, or devouring him whole with those dark, burning, cold eyes of his….

….but afterwards, though the man had insisted that he was "not a cuddler…" lately, he would simply hold Danny, for hours on end, until the two fell asleep, alabaster fingertips brushing through the boy's raven-colored spikes while Danny waited for his heart beat to slow down, while listening to the soothing mantra of Vlad's beneath his head. Once it had stopped fluttering somewhat, it became a constant, steady, resounding beat. Danny was probably never going to tell the man that-as if he needed another reason for the guy to gloatingly hold something like this over his head-bur right now….

It was the only thing Danny really wanted to hear right now. A soothing beat that served as a lullaby, as the man would sometimes pause, bend his head, and brush his lips against Danny's forehead, cheek, lips, neck, or shoulder.

Sometimes, the two simply….talked. About anything. So long as the conversation didn't stray towards himself too often. Vlad was entirely too fascinated with him for his own good….and there were aspects of his life that Danny wouldn't. Danny couldn't-let people in so easily. Even though Sam and Tucker were there with him for…a great deal of it, there was still uncharted territory that the boy preferred be kept locked most of the time.

At least Vlad knew this, and didn't push the subject, like Jazz sometimes-if not always-did, brushing her fingertips on more painful memories until the boy could hardly stand it anymore, and simply left the house, fuming. If he didn't take refuge with Sam or Tucker, he now did so with Vlad-increasingly. The man wouldn't ask questions if Danny suddenly arrived at his door, soaked, and breathless in the dead of night. It was enough to be held by the warm, flickering blaze of the hearth, cradled to Vlad's chest, even as the man's fingertips brushed passed the Japanese kanji on his back:

Boku wa kowareta messiah?

Danny could feel himself being slowly, carefully moved…..though the sirens sounded much, much farther away then they really were…

He could talk to Vlad about anything. Nowadays, it was as natural as breathing. It was good to be with him, good to be kissed by him, good to be taken by him, good to talk with him.

Danny shook his head faintly. What was wrong with him? He'd never been a sentimental sap before. This was ridiculous.

…..so then, why did he want to see Vlad quite so badly as he did right now?

A slight stab of regret entered the scene as light finally flickered back to Danny's vision, even as the boy was being strapped to a stretcher. One of the Ambulance Assistance had picked up an almost destroyed, but still ringing faintly, cell phone.

Danny's heart leapt, and the boy's stomach faintly lurched again, but he forced himself not to throw up once again as he weakly gestured for the phone as the paramedics carefully loaded him into the waiting white car, spots flashing across his vision once again.

He faintly extended a cream, trembling hand, and Danny went paler upon seeing just how much crimson was on that arm.

"G-Give that…to me," he rasped out finally. "It's for me."

~*~*~

He'd been correct: It had been Vlad. Had the situation not been so deathly serious, the boy could have laughed at the man's impatience and worry, but he'd barely been able to slur out a message before his eyes closed once again, and the paramedic took over, taking away the phone in a firm, gentle hand. After that, she'd pulled an air mask over his face, and the world began to slow down once again.

The tears fell from his eyes, and, as Danny closed them, he soon no longer felt anything-even the cold.

~*~*~

He shook and moaned; pain raced against his spine like fire, and he cried out in his mind. Unseen hands groped at him, administering needles, and Danny cried out once again, in the howling, dark storm of his pain and confusion.

Someone, Anyone…..

But no one came. Danny trembled, hearing a faint crashing noise at the back of his head…..

…no…..

A series of jabbering, threatening voices. Well….for the most part, the voices sounded pleading. But there was one voice-desperate, enraged, and slightly familiar-rising above the rest-

Y&*ERT*&%()%^%IJ?

The world was disorientated, and he felt sick again-

R)T*^$$O)&&%FVHISF%*^…

He hurt; everything hurt, and the quaking urge to sob was overpowering, even though the shakes would only send fresh new waves of fire down his chest-

"Sir! Please-d-don't…."

Someone was touching him; Danny squirmed away from him. But whomever he'd wriggled away from was clearly not having that.

Still confused, still writhing, the boy felt someone lift him-as easily as if Danny were a rag doll, disregarding his struggles as wires slipped around his body…..

…no…

A soothing voice. He could not make out any words, but the voice was enough, sparking a deep hum of a melody in the boy's rippled thoughts, soothing them and smoothing them.

Fingertips caressed his skin; a pair of lips tremulously kissed the nape of his neck. Danny still could not see as he felt himself being lowered onto a comfortable weight, someone holding him-and quite tightly. It was getting to the point of uncomfortable for his aching body, but his mind clung onto the information, the way a drowning man will grasp at straws.

Warmth. Another caress, with shaking fingers. His legs were tucked in. He heard a gasp, and a few choice swears that Danny had never even heard before.

A muffled whimper. The slightest brush against the top of his head, as if it were tucked under someone's chin. Then, the bemused boy's face was pressed into something soft and warm, with something pounding a mile a minute.

The familiar scent of expensive tea leaves. Danny's bewildered thoughts did a complete 360.

'…..Vlad?'


End file.
